Christian Student Fellowship to pack 100,000 meals for Haiti

By Anyssa Roberts | Assistant News Editor

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Students, faculty and staff will join forces Wednesday in an effort to pack 100,000 meals for Haiti in Christian Student Fellowship’s largest outreach event ever.

“We came up with the idea to energize students and supply a need for food,” said Brian Marshall, a lead campus minister for CSF.

For an event of this magnitude, Marshall expects close to 28,000 students, faculty and staff to participate.

In 2010, immediately after a magnitude 7 earthquake hit Haiti, countries around the world rushed to deliver care packages and medical assistance to those affected.

Southland Christian Church in Lexington was active in sending meals to Haiti, and CSF joined the effort before starting its own outreach.

Plans for the event began almost a month before K-week started.

CSF is asking alumni and current members for donations to help with the $20,000 cost to pack and send the meals to Haiti, Marshall said.

“We want people to give because they want to give,” he said.

CSF has a partnership with Lifeline Christian Mission, a nonprofit organization founded in Haiti, which will distribute the meals.

Lifeline is a nondenominational Christian ministry that has worked to feed, clothe and shelter people around the world since 1980.

Several CSF staff members have connections to Haiti through mission work, including Blake Morris, who has been to Haiti a few times and witnessed the nation’s conditions.

Morris went to Haiti for a mission trip when he was 10 years old.

He and his parents helped to build a base for the Northwest Haiti Christian Mission during the trip.

Morris said the experience in Haiti influenced his life.

“I saw widespread poverty, spiritual oppression, political oppression and many other things that broke my heart at a very young age,” he said.

In college, Morris took two more trips to Haiti for mission work in Port-de-Paix, and upon graduation, he joined CSF .

“Everything I learned about serving those in Haiti can be applied to UK. We have neighbors on campus that need help here too,” he said.

Anyone can come to the CSF Building Wednesday to help the group reach their goal of providing 100,000 meals for people in need.

All are encouraged to register for the event online at ukcsf.org/outreach.

CSF Building, 4 p.m. – 12 a.m. Wednesday